Christmas Cheers
by forevermagik13
Summary: Aerith is excited to have all of her friends over for the Holidays. Everyone else is determined to keep her from doing any hard work, but all Aerith wants to do is help out. Also, there's that suspicious surprise of Zack's to consider.


**Author's Note:** Told you all I'd have a Christmas/Holiday one-shot! Technically, this is AU, _technically_. However, I think it can fit in right after Betwixt and Between. Is it necessary to have read my other fics to enjoy this? Absolutely not! By all means, read and enjoy! If you like what you read, check out some of my other stuff. I do reference events that have happened in my other fics, but in general, this is stand alone.

Like I said, enjoy!

* * *

_Aerith's House_

Aerith looked at the tree and smiled. They only managed to get a small one this year, which was funny, given how Zack, Cloud _and _Leon had all gone out with the intent of getting the largest one. However, the tree was still absolutely lovely. Everyone had an ornament or two and the star on top only made it tilt a little. It was easily making her forget about the persistent darkness problem that Hollow Bastion was having.

In just a few hours, everyone was going to be here and they were going to be celebrating. This was the first year Aerith had done what she'd been meaning to do for years and actually invite everyone. She'd gone and invited every single friend she'd ever made over the years. Of course, some of them had said no. (Aerith hadn't _really _expected the King and Queen of all of Disney to be able to make it—but they'd wished her a Merry Christmas all the same.) Still, there were going to be more than twenty people in the house. Aerith had small gifts for all of them—chocolates and candies, some socks, little cute things. She looked at all the different-sized boxes under (and around) the tree that were to and from other family members. Looks like it would be another year of someone getting a weapon.

The pastries were all ready to go in the oven first thing tomorrow morning. Zack was going to make lots of eggs. Leon was going to make sausage and bacon. The fridge was stocked full of fruits and drinks. The dinner food was all stored at Merlin's—a ham, potatoes, vegetables, stuff to make casseroles, pies, the works! Aerith found her smile growing wider. It was going to be a great Christmas.

Someone padded down the stairs. Aerith looked over to see Tifa.

"Goodness," Tifa exclaimed. "Leon and Zack are not kidding when they say you never sleep."

Aerith giggled. "Yes, I suppose they're right."

"Yes, well," Tifa said. "You should still get some sleep. C'mon! Santa won't come while you're awake."

Aerith snorted and followed Tifa up the stairs.

xx

Despite being the last one to go to bed, Aerith was still the first one up, or so she thought. There were plenty of pastries to get in and out of the oven. Her plan was to get those started and then wake other people up when it was time to start other food. For example, eggs did not take long at all, so Zack could be woken up even later.

However, when she walked down to the kitchen, she was surprised to find Tifa, Cid, Leon, and Zack already working.

"What…?" she began.

"Beat you!" Zack grinned. "Go sit down on the couch or something. Relax! We've got this!" Tifa, Leon, and Cid all nodded.

Aerith had no choice but to go sit down. She turned on the music player on the way, wanting to fill the house with Christmas music. She looked at the tree and nearly gasped. Santa had _clearly _visited after Tifa had dragged her to bed. He also apparently knew that they were going to have company, for there were more presents than would normally be for the ten people currently occupying the house.

"Is Shera going to be able to make it?" Aerith asked. "She never got back to me."

"Naw," Cid said. "But I'm goin' over there this evenin', if tha's all right?"

"Of course!" Aerith and Leon said simultaneously.

Over the next hour, everyone else began waking up. Yuffie came out and sat on the couch next to Aerith, not at all surprised that Aerith had been kicked out of the kitchen. She leaned against her and just rested her head on Aerith's shoulder. Aerith patted her knee. Rinoa and Zell started setting the table. Quistis went to go get Merlin so he could make sure the enchantment would hold everyone attempting to sit at it. Cloud wasn't of any use until Tifa handed him a cup of coffee, then he sat down on the other couch.

There was some (but not all) of the food on the table when people started arriving. Cloud's mother was the first, followed shortly by Zack's parents. They'd all been given feathers from Rinoa to transport them. Aerith had been uneasy asking Rinoa for such a favor, knowing that Rinoa only used them in emergencies, but Rinoa had no problem doing so for the holiday. There was some idle chit-chat until suddenly, Zack shushed them all.

"Hey, guys, it's Aerith's favorite song! Lay off the noise a little!"

Aerith giggled, embarrassed by Zack drawing attention to it. But she sat and let herself enjoy the one song. When it was over, the chatter began again.

Then Sora, Kairi, Riku, and Namine arrived, carrying bundles of presents.

"You're early!" Leon mused.

"Sorry!" Sora said. "It was late morning on the Islands!"

"Not really," Riku just said. "But the sun's been up for hours. It may be winter, but the days are still just as long."

Aerith went to go help Namine and Kairi situate the presents around the tree, but Yuffie got to it first. Aerith sighed and sat back down.

"You didn't have to bring us presents, you know," she said.

"Yes, but we knew you got us stuff," Namine said. "So we brought presents."

Roxas, Axel, and Xion were the next to arrive, talking about Axel's propensity to sleep in—a fact which he didn't even deny. They, too, brought presents.

Namine asked Aerith a question about a healing technique and the two of them got into that while Aqua, Terra, and Ven arrived. Leon's dad and sister arrived. In the meantime, food got put on the table and Aerith hadn't even noticed. She was slightly impressed.

Everyone sat down and they all started piling food on their plates, not even discussing the presents waiting for them under (but mostly around) the tree. Now was a time for eating. The healing discussion quieted, considering Aerith actually held it to the same regards as she did fighting and battle plans. Sora got to talking about what had already gone on at his house that morning, with some input from Kairi and Riku, and that took up most of the conversation. At some point, everyone's extended family was introduced. That, plus the poke war that Yuffie, Leon, and Rinoa had been in all week (with the addition of others at times—now especially), occupied the meal.

As they finished, Aerith started to clear the table, but Merlin set his magic to it.

"It's Christmas, no one should have to do such a mundane thing as dishes!" he said.

"Jus' don' lemme catch you breakin' the kitchen!" Cid grumbled. "I jus' fixed it."

"Presents," Yuffie declared, before an argument could break out.

So they all sat around the room. Aerith ended up on a couch with Zack, Cloud, and Tifa. Rinoa, Leon, Cid, and Ellone ended up on the other. Zack's parents pulled up chairs. Cloud offered his seat to his mother, but she said she'd stay at the table. Axel offered to stay with her, so did Laguna. Aqua, Terra, and Ven ended up staying there, too, given the sheer amount of people. Kairi and Namine pulled over the big armchair and shared that. Sora and Riku ended up on the floor in front of them. Roxas and Xion sat down against the wall. Quistis and Zell got other chairs. Merlin summoned himself a small stool and sat there happily. Yuffie designated herself as the passer-outer of presents. A job which she did nearly every year and no one was going to stop her.

In the end, it took both her and Kairi to get everything because some people's handwriting was difficult to read. Out of everyone's handwriting, Aerith's was tied for the neatest next to none other than Santa himself.

"Told you he exists," Sora said, looking pointedly at Riku.

Riku rolled his eyes.

"He's right, you know," Zack said.

Riku didn't seem to want to listen.

"Just drop it," Aerith said. "Let him believe what he wants."

Once all the presents were passed out, Yuffie declared that they could all open them. Aerith started with one from Quistis, since it was on top. Inside was 5000 munny.

"Quistis!" she exclaimed. "You didn't have to!"

Quistis blushed. "You're incredibly hard to shop for, I found. Go buy yourself whatever you want with that. Something you _want_, not foodstuffs."

Now Aerith found herself blushing.

"Oh goodness, Cloud!" Rinoa exclaimed.

"What?" Cloud asked, looking up from the ribbon he was arguing with.

"You did _not _have to get me modifications for my blaster edge!"

Cloud shrugged but smiled a little.

"You sure know how to pick weapons…" Rinoa murmured.

Aerith knew this to be true. When Cloud was around for Christmas, he tended to give at least _one _person something weapon related. Many years ago, Aerith had received a new staff from him—a staff that had saved her life, actually.

"Hey, get me a new sword for Christmas next year, will you Cloud?" Zack asked. "I try my best to keep care of Angeal's…"

"I'll see what I can do," Cloud said quietly.

"Yes!" Yuffie exclaimed. "More tennis balls!"

"Make your own ice cream flavor?" Kairi asked. "Boy, we'll never stop with this stuff…"

"Who's it from?" Namine asked.

"Santa."

"Seriously?" Riku asked, not sounding convinced.

"You know," Sora said. "Maybe I'll take you to see him this afternoon!"

"Actually," Namine said. "That's a bad idea. He's vacationing. Wait a couple of weeks."

"Oh," Sora said. "That's a good point."

Aerith began opening an awkwardly-shaped present from Cloud. When she finally had it open, she realized that it was the parts for another staff. She had just been…

"Cloud," she said. "You knew my staff was getting a little worn, didn't you?"

"Sephiroth isn't going to show up, is he?" Zack asked.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Rinoa frowned.

"Rinoa," Cloud said. "I can handle this. But no, I don't think he will. Not because he doesn't have a little bit of a sense of humor—because he would show up on Christmas. But because there's just too many of us for him to want to bother with. Remember the dance?"

"Most of us do," Xion said. "It's kind of hard to forget."

Aerith distinctly remembered Zack trying to cook things with Fira. And of course Sephiroth. The night had been a good one otherwise.

She saved Zack's present for last. She opened the box and saw a ring. Her eyes widened. There were several gasps from people nearby.

"Zack," she said quietly. Was this…?

He looked at her, grinning.

"Oh!" he said, his eyes going wide. He scratched the back of his neck. "I got it for you because I thought the gemstone matched your eyes!" He took the ring out of the box and held it up to her face. "Yeah! Perfectly! Now, does it fit your finger?"

Aerith held out her hand, unsure of all the emotions she was feeling. Rings symbolized so many things, but Zack had bought it like it was any other piece of jewelry. Which was fine! She just…

The ring did indeed fit perfectly. Aerith held out her hand, examining it. It was subtle, and beautiful. She looked up at Zack and smiled.

"Thank you," she said.

He nodded. "You're welcome!"

He found her gift and began opening it.

"I wasn't sure what to get you…" she began.

"Nonsense," he said. "I'm sure it's great!"

He got the little box open and Aerith's gift fell out. It was a metal locket of sorts, not to go on a necklace, but in his pocket. In it, she'd placed one of his favorite pictures of the two of them. He was being a goof and she was laughing at him. He looked at it and smiled. Then he hugged her.

"Thanks! I'll always have it with me!"

"That's kind of the point," Cloud pointed out.

"Oh hush!" Zack said, taking a swipe at him. Cloud blocked.

Everyone else continued opening presents. Some still had a few. Some people, like Cloud's mom and Leon's dad, who had less gifts than everyone else, started cleaning up some of the trash. Aerith told them they didn't have to, but they insisted.

So the house got clean as Aerith looked at the ring on her finger. It was such a pretty shade of green. Zack had gotten her plenty of jewelry over the years. This one was certainly her favorite. Everyone then spent a few hours enjoying their new gifts. Sora, Riku, and Roxas all volunteered to go around the town and make sure no Heartless were going to cause trouble. Leon, Rinoa, and Quistis went out as well separately. Aerith began reading one of her new books that Tifa had gotten her.

In seemingly no time, it was time to start cooking for dinner. The food was brought over because Aerith's kitchen was more capable. Aerith started busying herself in the kitchen, but was told on several occasions to take it easy—even by Cid, who was on his way out the door to see Shera as he said it.

"Guys, you don't get it," Aerith said. "I actually _like _helping out. I know you all think you're doing me a favor, but I really just want to help."

"Do you want to make the casserole, then?" Cloud asked, holding out the green beans.

"Yes!" Aerith said, feeling relieved. "Yes, I would!"

"Later," Zack said. "You should help me cut the ham!"

"That sounds lovely," Aerith said. Because it was.


End file.
